Solar Credit discount legislation – which forms part of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) bill – is back before the Senate this week, together with the Emmissions Trading Scheme. The RET was deferred in June by the Coalition and Senator …
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Sourced From Businessspectator.com.au | It’s a tragedy that the climate change debate is being used to pull the Coalition apart and to possibly bring on. .Federal Opposition backbencher Wilson Tuckey has again emailed all his colleagues attacking his leader Malcolm Turnbull over emissions trading. An opinion poll today shows the Liberal leader has recorded his worst performance in a Newspoll as the alternative prime minister, dropping three points to 16 per cent. But the poll also shows 45 per cent of people support Australia waiting to introduce an emissions trading scheme until after the Copenhagen climate change talks, whereas 41 per cent say it should bring in the scheme now. .The Federal Opposition may have blinked in the stand-off over emissions trading but the Government is not yet ready to cut it any slack. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government is not prepared to delay a vote on the issue after the Coalition outlined its nine principles for negotiating over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. .The Coalition remains divided over the Government’s emissions trading scheme, with two senior frontbenchers at odds over whether the Opposition should pass the bill. In an article in the Australian newspaper today, frontbencher Tony Abbott called on colleagues to ultimately support the scheme or risk facing a double dissolution election. The Opposition’s position has been to reject the scheme when it is voted on in August, but in doing so the Government would then have a potential double dissolution trigger. But Opposition Senate Leader Nick Minchin says the bill will be voted down when it comes before the Senate next month. . THE most senior public servant on climate change has blasted criticism of the Government’s emissions-trading scheme made by the Opposition, big business and the mining industry. Martin Parkinson, the Secretary of the Department of Climate Change, used a speech yesterday to call for honesty in the debate as it entered its final stages. He lashed out at modelling put forward by the mining sector and their lobbyists forecasting thousands of job losses in areas such as coal. Too often they contain low-quality analysis, flawed assumptions and a selective use of data,” he said. . ANY attempt by Malcolm Turnbull to compromise over climate change and pass the Government’s emissions trading scheme next month will put the Opposition Leader on a collision course with his party. Mr Turnbull, who is fearful of giving Labor a trigger for an early election, hinted yesterday at moving amendments to Labor’s emissions trading scheme when the Senate voted on it next month, rather than opposing it outright, as is the Coalition’s current intention. Mr Turnbull toldradio yesterday there were “powerful arguments” for delaying the scheme until next year, after the United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December, and by which time the final shape of an emissions trading scheme in the United States should be known . TWO-THIRDS of voters support the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme in a finding that will do little to ease pressure on the Opposition to deal with the scheme in the Senate before the end of the year. The latest Herald/Nielsen poll finds 65 per cent support the scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and 25 per cent oppose it. However, progress over the weekend in the United States towards establishing a scheme has been seized on by the Government to step up the pressure on Mr Turnbull and the Opposition leader hinted yesterday the Coalition may now move earlier. .Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the momentum behind new climate change legislation in the United States should force the Coalition to clarify its position on emissions trading. The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill that seeks to cut American emissions by 17 per cent by 2020. |
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